


How Do You Haunt Me So?

by ilcuoreardendo



Series: Tales from the Isles [16]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Growth, Low Chaos (Dishonored), Low Chaos Corvo Attano, Low Chaos Daud (Dishonored), M/M, Post-Low Chaos Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 11:52:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18151529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilcuoreardendo/pseuds/ilcuoreardendo
Summary: Do you ever weep? For the time you stole? The world you changed? For him?





	How Do You Haunt Me So?

**Author's Note:**

> The title is also the prompt.

* * *

_He weeps for you_.

Daud knows the voice. He heard it in the recordings played when the plague was just beginning to rise. Heard it last, raised in defense of her daughter.

_He’s wept for the boy you were._

Daud rises from Corvo’s bed, makes his way to the chest in the corner, finds it unlocked. Inside might be keepsakes: handkerchiefs from admirers, pieces of dresses and suits once worn by the Empress. Daud doesn’t know. Nor does he care. Because the most important thing, he knows, rests on top. A heart. A human heart, threaded with wire and mechanical parts.

_Do you ever weep? For the time you stole? The world you changed? For him?_

He reaches out, draws his thumb along one of the chambers. The muscle shudders against his skin. Smooth, wet. An electric shock streaks through his arm and into his body and for a moment, he can _see_.

There is Corvo, looking so very young as he takes his place at the young Empress’s side for the first time. There is baby Emily, wailing and wet from birth. The Empress and Corvo in the garden with Emily. Emily’s 16th birthday, the Empress smiling on. Emily’s coronation as the former Empress steps down to let her daughter rule. Things that will not be. Time that will not come.

Daud jerks his hand away, half expects his thumb to come away slick with blood. It doesn’t.

When Corvo comes in, emergency summons from the young Empress taken care of, Daud is at the window, staring out at the sea.

Corvo stands next to him, looking first at Daud, then out into the distance.

If Daud’s eyes shine or his face is damp, Corvo makes no mention of it.

_He’s wept with joy for who you’ve become._


End file.
